EDITORIAL: Resident Evil: Games and Movies, Is it that bad?

Resident Evil has had comic books SO THIS COUNTS. Anyways I go through the movies and video games pretty much summing up what I feel about it in general and answering the big question, CAN THE RESIDENT EVIL GAMES BE MADE INTO MOVIES? Most likely...the best article I have written.

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By MrSotoMan - 10/13/2012

So I was bored one lonesome night smoking weed (yes I smoke weed) playing Resident Evil 6 and realized how the series has evolved through the years through movies, games and pretty much now pop-culture as well. So I decided to have an all out Resident Evil marathon. I played all 6 Resident Evil games again (took 3 days) and watched all 5 RE movies. After doing all that and seeing what Resident Evil has changed into is pretty sad but yet needed.
THIS IS WHERE I EXPLAIN.

THE STORY

THE GAMES- One thing I notice everyone bicker about, including myself is the story not being used in the movies. The basic plot of the first game revolves around a rescue squad sent to a mansion to rescue survivors, what they find turns out to be a nightmare filled with betrayal, terror and the idea of surviving in the midst of chaos. That's pretty much the first game in a nutshell and that story alone would make anyone think worthy to be a movie, but the movie wasn't released till 2002. Already there have been two sequels plus a spin-off, a Gameboy Color game and Gun Survivor games as well. Let's just say when I found out there was no Chris or Jill, I found myself to be pretty upset but honestly the movie does in a way follow the games true intention.

It doesn't have to be the story that solely relies on the new viewers expectations because even though the first game was true horror, as the games go on it doesn't seem to get scary anymore. How about in all three of the first games, the main characters decide to split up because they feel they can find more survivors without slowing each other down. The way the characters reacted to the events unfolding on each disc was pretty good and given way much more character development than in Resident Evil 1. Let's be honest here, does that sound interesting as a movie perspective? If they did make a RE movie based off of Chris and Jill's story it would be hard to make because half the time they are split up. When they are split up they catch up with a partner but holding that into film would be holding two main stories told at once, making it difficult for the audience to breath through what is going on. The films sort of open that up a little more in some aspects.

THE MOVIES- Now the movies tend to hold some peoples nutsack..tits whatever (cue the boob gifs) when it tends to mentioned here. Again guilty as charged for the movies being terrible, but I feel they are meant to be terrible. The story is not similar to the game, in fact I don't ever remember a Red Queen in Resident Evil as a villain. A HIVE bunker is non-existent in the games and even worse, who the hell is Alice? Again upsets me at first glance but picking Alice as a main character was a pretty good choice. She's pretty much nobody in the series, entirely made up. A good choice because now the audience can connect and not have to play the games in order to find out who she is. The audience is given a chance to grow with a character without being spoiled by the video games themselves. Everything else in setting I still kind of question why they went that route, but let's be honest here this movie in a way was for fans. In fact all 5 of them in story. While not close in general,it does get the general idea of what the games are about. Having Resident Evil set up as a scary horror film would diminish any chances of it making sequels.

The story in the Resident Evil movies does tend to follow what happened...well the first two movies in this case. Our main characters are trapped, not knowing of the chaos in Raccoon City. The second film the characters are exploring the city while also adding 3's storyline as well as trying to escape Raccoon City and then three, four and five are pretty much going on their own territory in a lot of ways. Even though the story is all around flat, as a fan I can say it did get the concept entirely right in the department. Like I said before, having the exact story in the movies would be pretty hard to make considering the fact that most of the story-lines in Resident Evil are mostly centered on different peoples perspectives with their story being just as important as the other characters. Seriously, you can't fit Ada and Sherry in the same movie it just wouldn't work at all.

THE CHARACTERS

THE GAMES- Let's look at our wide variety of characters. Chris, Jill, Leon, Barry, Wesker, Claire, Ada, Sherry, Carlos, Birkin, Annette, Nikolai, Nemesis etc. The list goes on with so many damn characters who are damn right important to the series. But after the third game is where everything begins to not make any sense of these characters. They all keep going back to fighting more and more monsters but yet...SEEM TO COMPLAIN ABOUT IT! Then why do you keep getting into this mess? Don't believe me, Leon S. Kennedy after surviving Raccoon City does not decide to live a normal life but is appointed by CIA to join and is given a mission. Like why would you wanna join the CIA, I think years of therapy should help. In fact in the end of RE2 he decides to go all out vengeance mode on taking down Umbrella, like he just moved there he doesn't know anybody so why take it upon yourself for revenge? Like...really? Chris Redfield's is the only one that makes sense for revenge, but as the series goes on it takes 6 games to wrap up a whole entire story much like the movies. All through these games you seem to develop with the characters on what they are going through. Truthfully though who cared about characterization in Resident Evil?

I admit Leon's doesn't make sense but I didn't realize that till my 12th play-through of that game and the other play-throughs as well, meaning even though it was flawed writing, we still wanted to see what is going to happen next. The movies tend to follow that in every movie what that concept of characterization. Again in ways the movies are for fans as well and not to dishearten us.

THE MOVIES- I said it in The Games section but let's look at the movies of the character Alice. Instead of other movies focusing on different characters, the movie goes to only focus on one character. Rather than have the main characters we have Alice through all 5 movies. So let's say the Resident Evil movie we all want get's made and becomes a big hit. Eventually people are going to want a sequel, so again Sony says follow the games. The sequel hits, entirely different cast comes in. The audience doesn't wanna know who Leon is, they wanna see what the hell happened next with Chris and Jill, is Wesker still alive? Did Barry see his family? Questions like that will begin arise which leads to the importance to Alice in the films. You see you couldn't put all the main characters in the game the main characters in the film, it would be better to show they exist in the movie world. Seriously, do you know giddy I got when Jill popped up in live-action? 10 years old she looked hot on screen and it was her. Bad acting, sexy body, clothes from 3rd game, MAN IT'S HER ALRIGHT!

Overall the outcome of her character's fate is what the hell in the third movie but as I was going on, this is where the movies follow the games. It doesn't continue with her till the end of the fourth and the rest of the fifth movie. Sort of like how she popped up in Resident Evil 5 in the games, you don't know what happened with her after but you don't ask questions. The Resident Evil games are a big universe with a lot of times questions that aren't answered unless your a huge fan and wanna go through the Wesker Reports, but even then some of those questions are still not answered. Like Steve Burnside, did anyone remember him being alive? Wesker said he was, he had big plans for him, what happened? Unanswered. Wesker had taken Sherry, what happened while he had her remains to be talked about till this day. Again things the audience like that will never connect too. The movie shows us the main characters as supporting characters, I have heard some of my friends who never played the games say flat out Jill or Carlos was cool....excuse their taste in movies.

OVERALL EVOLUTION

THE GAMES- As I played all 6 and just looked up some of the videos of the other games to catch up, I realized how much Resident Evil has changed. People need to understand though, Resident Evil was always trying to market to a target audience with it's genre. Look at Resident Evil 1-3, then 4-6 and you'll see what I mean. This is going to be like a mini review of Resident Evil 6 for a moment, bear with me. Resident Evil 1 at the time of its release had horror movies as the main popular craze. Zombies we're also starting to become popular again and at the time this game was also geared for Sega. So the tone and scare factor of it are totally different. Resident Evil 6 on the other hand feels like I have no idea what I am playing. I don't know if this is a homage to the Resident Evil games in the past or it's trying to be something new. I have no idea why Chris's story feels like Gears of War, I have no idea of the game is trying to be survival horror or action/adventure. This is where the biggest flaw in Resident Evil is that the challenge is brought down a lot, EVEN ON PROFESSIONAL! All these damn karate moves and finding ammo and health every time you kill a zombie just makes no sense. It makes sense for a J'avo but for a regular zombie who is just a random citizen to have 12 Gauge Shotgun Shells is unrealistic. This is where the game falls prey to what the movies we're and where Capcom tries to market to everyone out there.

The distinct nature of the two worlds are now ruined thanks to the high-flying action and Ada Wong bat-grappling all over the place. That was never Resident Evil in my opinion. Let's face it though how many times am I going to go through a small town and end up in a bigger mess? 6 ends a note the way the games should end but I feel it suffers as it just feels all way to rushed and leaves it too much open. People wanted more of the shooting and running around in Resident Evil when clearly a lot are missing the point behind Resident Evil was to survive. Everything now seems more bombastic in Resident Evil when it should be the scares and thrills. We get that in RE 6 but just for 3 chapters in one storyline...LIKE REALLY! No matter what though we still play them, people enjoy the games and enjoy the movies as well. They both share similarities and in a lot of ways have proven to be worthy to keep seeing more. Something the movies have as well!

THE MOVIES- The movies in a lot of ways progress like the games, the only difference is having Alice as the main part; but lets be honest here, we all want to see what happen next with her character despite how bat shit crazy it becomes it still keeps us entertained. Through all 5 movies like the games we see all these characters evolve. Leon becomes more of a dark character as the game progresses along with Alice's superhuman abilities, we still want to see them go on no matter how bad the movie is. In fact a lot of the Resident Evil games we're changing to this high octane action movies. Don't believe me? Look at Code Veronica for Dreamcast, the beginning sequence is Claire running from a helicopter shooting at her plus her blowing up an Umbrella lab trying to escape. Similar events happen in Resident Evil movies that involve that kind action in the movies.

To say it is not following the games is completely negative in everyway, you gotta look at the aspects of what make a video game movie. You don't have to have the characters, you don't have to have the knowledge of the past games to understand the movies. The movies are its own little world where the new audience is Alice and the rest of the characters who are from games are all supporting roles that we get to see.

ENDING

Overall Resident Evil is a series that is evolving from what it truly was, but as gamers get older and the market changes on what we like, like for example the wide variety of multiplayer games. Resident Evil 6 allows co-op, in fact tries to push it in even if your not allowing someone to join. The beginning games didn't have that, it had the idea of trying to survive. Now with COD, Gears of War and practically almost every game there is multiplayer. Capcom's advancing to the gamers of now, same with the movies. Once people play the games like 5 and 6 they will realize similarities between the games and movies easily.

Resident Evil lets face it has never broaden to everyone out there and now it is a billion dollar franchise because of the movies. To say Resident Evil failed is too biased on both what the movies and games stand for. The movies stand for what the video games are and pretty much what you are doing the whole time, RUNNING, STOPING AND SHOOTING ZOMBIES, FINDING SECRETS AND AN ENDING ALWAYS LEADING TO WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT. Pretty much what the past Resident Evil games have been doing. So to wrap this up. Resident Evil is no doubt the best video game adaptation, it handles every aspect of Resident Evil that we know and love even if it has a new character we never heard of.

I've been loving RE6. Resident Evil 2 and 4 are still the best in my mind.

Good write-up though! I disagree with some of it, but its nice to see a good RE write up.

I think youre making an awefully big assumption that a good movie couldn't be made that follows the games more thoroughly. The movies, as they are, are a guilty pleasure for me too. Like you, I take them for what they are and don't see any need to complain. But they could have been better, they COULD have taken more inspiration from the games without carbon-copying the story or style.

As for the games, I guess maybe I've grown with them and their evolution. I agree that at times Chris's campaign does feel too much like a COD or GoW, but I love those games too, so I guess I'm okay with that feel with Resident Evils characters and story. Honestly, I've always liked the overall story of the games. I like the characters. It is a video game after all, its kinda pointless to try and psychoanalyze the motivations of a character like Leon or Chris. It'd be like pointing out that Rambo would probably act differently and suffer from a much more crippling PTSD.

It only took you THREE DAYS to play through six games to completion? I wish I had your free time.

The last game I played was RE5 (because my ex took the Wii), and that really wasn't a whole lot of fun. Too many quick time events, stupid dialogue, and then there was the glitch at the very last part of the end, where if your co-op partner can't get to a certain part in time, and you have to turn off the controller and let the computer take over. God that pissed me off.

I think these games aren't exactly full of potential, and the movies, likewise, are the same thing over and over again. I kind of opted out when Wesker died - seemed pointless afterwards.

haha capcom doesn't exactly stay up to par on there games. It fills in some of the gaps pretty damn well, including krausers story from resi 4, and a lot of literature on unanswered ?s, i wouldn't leave there info out in the dark

I don't wanna leave a whole essay on how I feel about the RE series, so I'll just say this:REmake remains my favorite RE game. The movies all suck (both as adaptations and as movies in general). The series started going downhill after 4 and died with 6. R.I.P. RE Series.

At this point, sure, a reboot is pointless, but there's always what could have been. If you haven't already, read zombie king George Romero's script, which was written just after the second game came out.Found here

There are a few quite noticeable changes, like Barry being black, Wesker being something of a commando, and Chris being part Native-American... but he found a way to incorporate a lot of things from the first game without the groundbreaking effects - like the Hunters.

Okay to end everyones complaining I'm just going to say this, Paul W.S. Anderson said the first film was a prequel to the games and that there will be one more Resident Evil more and ater that there will be no more RE films by him so the possibility of a reboot will probably be 75%

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